A Football Report

By Gordon Fleetwood, writing from NYC

2009 was drawing to a close, and the new year was around the corner. 2010 signaled the start of a new decade, and a time of celebration for fans of Corinthians.  The new year completed the club’s one hundredth year of existence, and celebrations were in order. Since its establishment, Corinthians has grown to be one of the most storied clubs in Brazilian football, boasting the second biggest fan base in the country, and an impressive trophy cabinet. Yet, that trophy haul had one piece missing. A trophy Corinthians didn’t have, yet one all their state rivals possessed. For all their success, Corinthians had never won South America’s premier club competition, the Copa Santander Libertadores, 

Thus, with all the festivities that were planned, the Copa Libertadores trophy was the set piece that every Corinthiano wanted to grace the party. What better way to mark one hundred years of existence? The club had gained automatic entry into the group stages of the competition by winning the 2009 Copa do Brasil. Now, it was time to conquer it, for the fans, for the club, for history.

Read More

Europa League champions Atletico Madrid announced the capture of Corinthians star Elias for a reported €7m. The 25 year old has agreed a 4 and a half year contract and should be presented to fans tomorrow after completing a medical. Elias is regarded as one of Brazil’s brightest futures and prior to the transfer, a move to Portuguese champions Benfica was imminent. 

Read More

By Fernando Sell

The football season in Brazil normally begins in the second or third week of January and ends in early December. A Brazilian season practically lasts one year; it is packed with matches and tournaments.

Firstly, the State Championships take place which is where all the clubs of one state compete. The states in Brazil are huge and have many big clubs in them, for example, in the state of São Paulo the biggest clubs are: Corinthians, São Paulo, Palmeiras and Santos. The Championships runs across a period of three to four months, ending in late April or early May. The most popular ones are “Carioca” – State of Rio de Janeiro, “Paulista” – São Paulo, “Mineiro” - Minas Gerais and Gaúcho – Rio Grande do Sul.

The format of the Championships varies. Some have a normal league format, with clubs playing home and away fixtures, the 1st and 2nd place team playing in the final. Other Championships play one round of matches and then go into the knockout round.

I believe that the State Championships should cease. They make the big clubs sacrifice their pre-season because they play many games against smaller and weaker clubs. The level and quality of football is much lower and top teams don’t always take it seriously. Furthermore, the winning teams don’t benefit from their winning form; their performances in the national league are very different.

Read More

By Eric Beard

Brasileiro Serie A club Corinthians, home to Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos, may have just set the bar for all clubs around the world when it comes to sustainability and eco-friendly points. Corinthians have announced that they will plant 100 trees for EVERY single match they play in, even cup matches. And on top of that, for every goal that is scored by a Corinthians player the club will plant another 100.

Apparently the initiative by the Brazilian club is part of the “Playing the Environment” project, which has team up with “Banco Cruzeiro do Sol.” According to the project’s press release (available here, translated to English), the trees will be planted in the beautiful Ecological Park in São Paulo. 

“”The reality puts us ahead of not only economic challenges, but also environmental. We take our first steps in that direction with the Playing for the Environment, “said Luis Octavio Indio da Costa, CEO of Banco Cruzeiro do Sul. “Corinthians is the ideal partner to mobilize the general public. It’s a successful club, with some of the biggest supporters of the country and it’s committed to important causes. For us it is a great pleasure to start playing for the Environment in 2010. “

So exactly how much trees do Corinthians expect to plant in the upcoming Serie A season? Well, last year they played 47 league/cup matches and scored 66 scored in those games, which means that if they do the same next season they’ll plant over 11,000 trees. But no one in the Corinthians’ administrations want to be called a “green” club, after all, the club’s rivals, Palmeiras, wear green.

What are your thoughts on this move by Corinthians? I personally think it’s brilliant, glad to see so much positivity towards sustainability in Brazil, a country that is infamous for its pollution in major cities. And here’s a nice remix of another great product of Brazil.

By Fernando Sell

Brazil is a nation with a fierce and historic rivalry between clubs. However, the characteristics of the rivalries are different in comparison to European ones.

As Brazil is a huge country that is composed of many states, it is rare to see a heated rivalry between two teams from different states.

The most intense rivalries are those between clubs of the same state; this mainly happens in the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The rivalries are primarily stimulated through state championships, also through the league known as O Brasileirão and the Brazilian Cup. When two rival teams play against each other the match is known as a derby and teams can play against each other 6 or more times in one year.

Grêmio vs Internacional

Grêmio and Internacional are fierce rival clubs from Porto Alegre, the capital city of the state Rio Grande do Sul. The state is practically divided in half by the clubs, half the state is painted blue and the other red. The historic derby between the two sides is known as the Gre-Nal.

Many players have played against each in the Gre-Nal, but one of the greatest player vs player moments was between Ronaldinho (Grêmio) and Dunga (Internacional). In one of the derbies, Ronaldinho destroyed Dunga with his tricks and flicks, and the Brazilian superstar scored a beautiful chip in the game.

This particular state championship in which the two teams compete for is called “Campeonato Gaúcho.” In 2009 Internacional were the winners, with arch rivals Grêmio finishing in second. Inter have won the competition 39 times and Grêmio 35 times.

Read More

By Dominic Vieira

Every footballer wants to play.

All footballers can all run, jump and shoot. All players enjoy being part of a winning team. But how many players suffer a huge injury throughout their career? How many players end up not being able to run, jump, and shoot? How many players have to watch their teammates lift up trophies whilst they are in crutches?

Unfortunately, injuries play a negative role in football. Nobody wants to suffer them or injure another player opposition. Injuries are regarded as the worst moments in a footballer’s career, especially those who spend months (or years) on the sidelines suffering. The span of a football player’s career is short, and being told that they have to end their career early is a huge psychological and physical blow to take.

Imagine telling a 20-year-old he can no longer play football? Fortunately, medical treatment in football has improved tremendously; this has enabled players to continue playing after being told that they can’t play anymore. The beautiful game has become more demanding, and as players play more games they are put under more pressure and their muscles and bones need to be highly specialized. Therefore, the chance of an injury is excessively high. The individual player is not the only person who suffers from the injury but also the teammates, manager and the fans lose out.

The majority of players bounce back from a serious injury mentally and physically stronger, but sometimes that is not the case, the injury ends up destroying a football player’s career. In this article, I have closely studied 4 players’ career-altering injuries.

Ronaldo:

The Brazilian superstar has a very unlucky right knee. In 1999, against Lecce, he ruptured it and immediately underwent surgery. After several months away from the field and completing a rapid recovery, O Fenômeno returned to the fields on April the 12th, 2000 against Lazio. Just several minutes after his return Ronaldo found himself on the floor in pain, once again with his right knee injured, but this time it was worse than the last time. This injury ended his hopes of playing in the Sydney 2000 Olympics. 20 months later Ronaldo was back and earned a place in the 2002 World Cup winning team. The story does not end here. In 2008, whilst representing AC Milan, Ronaldo suffered another injury; this time it was his left knee and was sidelined for another 9 months. The striker was not expected to recover from it, but once again, he regained his fitness. However he also gained weight. Ronaldo is currently playing for Corinthians in Brazil, but is not in Dunga’s plans for the 2010 World Cup.

Read More